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We’re going to the birds

In today’s installment of money saving ideas I present to you: How to feed a family of 5 on a budget of $10.00.

We were able to only spend $10.00 supplementing a free turkey and food we already had in the house in order to feed ourselves dinner Sunday through tonight (we cheated on Wednesday, I will explain)!!

It all started on Friday night. I honestly don’t remember how the conversation started but it ended with Chris being sent to the garage fridge to grab the free turkey they got at Thanksgiving and putting it in the sink for a thawing bath. Somewhere in the middle had been a conversation like the shrimp conversation in Forest Gump (we could have turkey, turkey sandwiches, turkey soup, turkey burgers…)

Sunday morning I didn’t come downstairs until after 10 and Lyz gave me the cutest little pout and said “It is probably too late to put the turkey in isn’t it?” I ran back upstairs to grab my Martha Stewart Cooking School book and declared “It should only take four hours!!”

Lyz and I have never cooked a turkey before. We’ve both been around when our mothers have done it and I have watched Jenn do it many times, but we’ve never done it. We found a pan that CLAD had bought at an auction that we thought would be suitable and stared at the bird in its packaging.

I don’t touch raw meat. I don’t. I do not. Never have. Ick. Gross. Yuck.

So, Lyz cut open the packaging and…
I touched it. I pulled it out. I pulled the neck out of its hiney. I pulled the gizzards out of its throat. I gave it a bath in the sink. I did it!!!! Yay me!! We patted the bird down and then let Avery and Delaney have fun smearing it with butter and an entire jar of Mrs. Dash. (that is what happens when you let a two year old have one more shake) Avery had a blast putting spices in the turkey’s butt. Lyz and I may have laughed a lot at that.
The house filled with the wonderful aroma of turkey and Riley (aka Muffin) kept running over to the stove to see what was going on. Lyz and I both felt oh so domestic that Chris was able to come downstairs to a house full of turkey deliciousness!

Meanwhile, Avery and I played with the pieces.
We had fun learning about the heart and the liver and the kidneys. None of us wanted to play with the neck though…ewwww.

So for dinner on Sunday night we had turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy and stuffing:
(spiced butt of turkey)

Monday night for dinner we had one of the ultimate in comfort foods…Hot Turkey Sandwiches!!! Lyz, Avery and I had gone to gymnastics while Chris was getting his ready. Lyz and I may have expressed a fear that we were going to come home to no gravy!!

Tuesday we had cold turkey sandwiches. Still yummy, but not as excellent as hot turkey sandwiches.

Wednesday night I wasn’t able to get home from work early enough to prepare what we had planned, but turkey hot dogs were eaten to keep our turkey theme going.

After dinner last night, Avery, Delaney and I got to work on tonight’s dinner. This way it is sitting in the fridge ready to go so we don’t have to worry about me being stuck at work! We made:

TURKEY CROQUETTES!!!
Now I had never heard of these things until I moved out here. I would laugh when we go to Shady Maple because Jenn and Lyz would get all excite when they saw croquettes, only to 95% of the time find out they were only serving seafood croquettes that day. They are yummy, not in my top ten, but still good and when you have 6 tons of turkey meat I see no reason not to make them. Now normally this is a project that I would do when home alone but this time was the most fun I have ever had making them!!! Why? Because I had Avery and Delaney to help me!! Pictures of course:

Now the croquettes are all happily waiting in the fridge for someone to put them in the oven. The only thing I am left to wonder…

What if CLAD doesn’t like homemade croquettes? Guess I’ll just order pizza lol

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3 thoughts on “We’re going to the birds”

Mmmmmmmmmm I totally love turkey and the whole turkey ‘n fixings thing… Although truth be told, I never make the turkey myself. And I think your tale is somewhat cautionary and explains why that is the case– 5 days of turkey straight? Not sure I can do it!! But we often do take the bones and bits home and make turkey noodle soup which is wonderful with egg noodles in it… As for the croquettes– interested to hear the verdict!